tipping point
by sumenaa
Summary: DRABBLE!SERIES. "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. That's just how sinners go, Sakura, you can't change that." But she'll try. She'll try. — Sasuke/Sakura
1. Chapter 1

**title: **tipping point  
><strong>summary:<strong> "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. That's just how sinners go, Sakura, you can't change that." But she'll try. She'll try. — Sasuke/Sakura  
><strong>dedication: <strong>to the irony of a thai girl only liking korean music.  
><strong>notes1: <strong>let me just say this. this will be _**eventual**_ sasusaku. note the word _**eventual**_. in bold, italic, underlined font. I cannot stress this enough, so please. don't bitch me out for there not being "enuf sazusak smex in d fist chappie!1!". dear lord.  
><strong>notes2: <strong>though this'll probably be more team taka than anything else, lawlz.  
><strong>notes3: <strong>yes, that means karin. and not karin-bashing. i love her, okay.

**disclaimer: **disclaimed.

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Karin was a lot of things — or so Suigetsu had told her — but if there was one thing she was not, it was stupid.

She was, in fact, an incredibly intelligible woman, she just preferred to flaunt certain assets than use her brain. There was a lot of knowledge between her ears, some more useful than others, some more important. There were trap-setting techniques and unambiguously memorised blueprints, battle methods and enemy titbits, names and faces and fact upon fact, stored in her mind for whenever it was needed.

That's what made Karin so special, her mind; it was exceptional. She had a knack for remembering, and a knack, some might say, for just _knowing_.

Sasuke was the exception.

"I don't understand what he's up to," she muttered around the rim of her bottle. "I don't _get him_."

Suigetsu and Jūgo looked up from their plates, first looking to their red-headed team mate, and then towards the fireplace, in front of which Sasuke was sat. He, like all of the other eleven evenings they'd spent in that dusty little inn, was brooding in his favourite chair, hands between his knees and head bowed slightly, eyes set firmly on the flames in the grate before him. The way his fingers skimmed one another, just joint but not quite pressed, made it seem to Karin like he was praying. Sasuke paid no mind to the others — his mind was elsewhere, dancing absently like the flames he so intently watched.

Suigetsu was the first to turn his attention back to the table. He scooped a forkful of rice into his mouth, chewing noisily as he spoke, "Meh, this ain't nothin' unusual, he's jus' broodin' like normal."

"Well, yeah, I get that, dead-last," Karin narrowed her eyes behind her frames and delivered a half-hearted kick to Suigetsu's shin under the table; he winced, "But _why_? This isn't his usual behaviour, this is his thinking phase. He's planning something."

The three watched their team leader in silence.

When both Suigetsu and Jūgo's plates were empty, and Karin's beer bottle lay discarded in the middle of the table, it was well past midnight. They left the table in its un-cleared state and took their own seats by the fire, Karin curling her legs beneath herself in the other armchair, Suigetsu and Jūgo filling the small sofa between. They continued to watch Sasuke — Karin took the most notice, carefully tracing the lines on his forehead with her gaze, trying to read his eyes with her own.

Before she could decipher anything, _anything_, he rose from his seat.

"I'm going to bed," he said plainly.

And so, he did. Suigetsu and Jūgo followed shortly after.

Karin remained by the fire. She watched it for heaven knows _how_ long, quietly observing the flames jump around in the grate, never forming the same patterns twice, unique as the snow that fell outside the window. Her bright, intelligent eyes seemed sadly out of place in the dreary little room — a woman with a clockwork mind, an air of quiet confidence, should not be curled in an armchair in a run-down inn, trying desperately to work out where her leader's own thought trail led. It was infuriating not knowing, but something whispered in her ear, quietly soothing her —

— _you know you'll get your crowning moment_._ He's planning something great, in which you will play the greatest role of all._

She smiled to herself, and took herself to bed.

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**notes4: **ugh, I love karin.


	2. Chapter 2

**title: **tipping point  
><strong>summary:<strong> "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. That's just how sinners go, Sakura, you can't change that." But she'll try. She'll try. — Sasuke/Sakura  
><strong>dedication: <strong>to the brilliance that is sweet chilli noodle salad, unff.  
><strong>notes1: <strong>I don't even know where I'm meant to be going with this.  
><strong>notes2: <strong>god, I'm just a writing machine today.

**disclaimer: **disclaimed.

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When Sasuke awoke, it was still dark.

He lay still for a moment, the light sheets only half draped over his torso, his back a little clammy even in the snowy weather. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he scanned the room, the walls, looking to the clock that hung there; it was still too dim to make sense of the hands, but Sasuke didn't need a clock to know it was early. Early awakenings always left him feeling sour — he could feel the migraine kicking in.

Sighing, he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

He scanned the room again. In the double bed beside his own were Suigetsu and Jūgo, knocked out and snoring like babies. On the third bed, the single, was Karin, on top of the sheets as though she'd fallen asleep sitting upright. Looking closer, Sasuke saw notebook paper, scraps, written on in Karin's scrawling writing, crumpled in her lap — mind maps, they looked like. Even in the dark, Sasuke could identify obvious words, like '_planning_', '_Konoha_', and his own name, written again and again and again.

He pretended to no-one in particular not to notice. He hauled himself onto his feet, fumbling in the semi-darkness to cross the room to the small, ill-equipped bathroom. His dark, ruffled hair felt greasy against his forehead — he decided that his first priority would be to shower.

"Y'awake?" Karin's voice was hoarse and low and slurred as she spoke from the corner of the room. It was evident that she'd just jolted awake, as she'd certainly been asleep when he woke up — she looked at him through narrowed eyes. "Sasuke, s'tha' you?"

His lips spread into a thin smirk at the realisation that she couldn't see without her glasses, blind and sightless and looking pretty helpless. He couldn't help but smile — he could take a knife to her throat right then and there, and she wouldn't know any different; his secret would be safe from the only real intelligence of the team. The others would never figure it out (the morons), she'd never get any closer to the truth, and nobody would ever know any different.

"Sa — "

He appeared at her neck, kunai drawn.

"What're these, Karin," he deadpanned. "'_Plot_'? '_Sasuke_'? So vague…are you planning against me?"

Karin took a shaky breath. She spoke with a quiet confidence. "Give me my glasses, Sasuke."

He dropped the specs into her lap, and moved slowly away. She placed them over her eyes, blinking at the sudden revival of her sight. She watched him without saying a word as he moved back across the room towards the bathroom.

"You're a smart girl, Karin," Sasuke hovered by the door. "I don't doubt you'll figure it out before the time's right. Keep quiet, though, and keep your life."

He closed the door behind him. Karin shut her eyes and waited for the shower to creak to life.

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**notes3:** ominous, right? no? okay.


	3. Chapter 3

**title: **tipping point  
><strong>summary:<strong> "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. That's just how sinners go, Sakura, you can't change that." But she'll try. She'll try. — Sasuke/Sakura  
><strong>dedication: <strong>to tumblr girls, you pretty pretty things.  
><strong>notes1: <strong>yep, still don't know where I'm going with this, hurhur. ||D**  
>notes2: <strong>I apologise for my extended absence. exams, omg. = =;;

**disclaimer: **disclaimed.

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Karin waited in the dark for Sasuke to return.

Her thoughts whirred, like machinery parts, her eyes trained on her toes, fingers absently twirling her pen in a circle. It wasn't like her, _not knowing_, not even having the vaguest idea of what was going on, and she didn't like it. It didn't feel right, at all.

In the opposite bed, Suigetsu had begun to stir. She pushed her papers and pen to the side and crawled across to where the pale-haired man slept. Expression thin, weary, almost, she pushed his hair out of his face with such care and sensitivity, before she landed a slap on his cheek, jolting him awake. He stammered something incoherent, flailing his arms, before coming to glare at his team-mate.

"What the _fuck_," he spat. "was that for?"

Karin deadpanned, and rose from her squatted position. Placing both hands on her hips to assume some sort of dominant stance, she looked down at him. "Sasuke's up to something."

Suigetsu blinked blearily back. "…do you really think I have shit for brains or some'in?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Well — well I don't!" Suigetsu snapped back indignantly. "I've noticed he's been a lil' more broody than normal, I figured there's gotta be some'in goin' on in 'is head."

Karin shook her head slowly, thoughtfully, and turned to start pacing as she spoke, moving her arms animatedly. "It's more than that, he's _plotting_, something pretty in depth, too. It has something to do with Konoha, I know that much, because that's always been his ulterior motive — but then there's something more to that, I think…it's going to be more than an attack."

Suigetsu tipped his head. "…and?"

"Suigetsu," Karin looked back at him, determination flashing in her eyes. "I think he's going to raise an army."

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Elsewhere, in Konoha, dawn broke.

Ignorance settled like a blanket.

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**outro: **christ, these get shorter. xDD


End file.
